The First Date of Leonard and Christine
by Gul Bricett
Summary: 5 times Leonard McCoy and Christine Chapel had to postpone their first date - and how they got together in the end.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Star Trek in any of its incarnations.

**Author's note: **The story was written to fill this prompt on the (new) LJ st_xi_kink_meme:"McCoy/Chapel. They met at the Academy, were mutually attracted and decided that they ought to start dating. However, once they were assigned to the Enterprise, their lives got a little times McCoy and/or Chapel postponed their first date, and the one time they finally had it."

**Rated T** for non-explicit sex and minor swearing.

**Five times Leonard and Christine**** had to postpone their First Date **

ONE

Leonard had had many reasons for enlisting in Starfleet, and putting a definite end to a bad relationship was one of them. So he wasn't looking for a new one, not right away. But he and Christine attended some classes together, and he started to like her. So, one afternoon, when the replicated coffee in the Academy cafeteria tasted especially bad, and Christine complained about it, Leonard proposed a trip to a café he had recently discovered. She agreed, and accompanied Leonard to his room first, because he wanted to drop off some library books there.

He shouldn't have done that, for when the door swooshed open, there was a green girl in the room. On his roommate Jim's bed. On Jim.

Gaila greeted them cheerfully; Christine gasped and ran away; Leonard cried "Wait!" and tried to follow her. But she was already gone.

TWO

It took Leonard some time and many apologies to convince Christine of him not being some perv who tried to lure unsuspecting fellow cadets into foursomes. Finally, he succeeded, and they became friendly again. But he couldn't find the right moment to ask her out, and they met less often, as Christine was already in her final year.

Then, one day, he agreed to help Jim with another of his crazy ideas: Jim wanted to take some stupid test a second time, because he said he had "passed it, but not won". So Leonard had the dubious pleasure to spend an afternoon playing a bridge officer who was blown to atoms by Klingons.

When they returned to their room, there was a message waiting for Leonard. It was from Christine. She had been posted on the "Yorktown" and would leave the day after tomorrow. She asked him to meet her at a certain restaurant at 17.00. It was 18.30.

"Shit", said Leonard.

THREE

After he had seen to his stowaway friend, Leonard got to work. The medical personnel had to prepare sickbay and some additional rooms for the many injured evacuees they were expecting. Soon he found out that Christine was among the staff, and when she seemed to be pleased to see him again, he made sure they worked together.

When there was a quiet moment, he asked her to show him the mess hall and have dinner with him, as soon as there was time.

She smiled and said, "Sure, it's a da-"

That was the moment when they felt ship shudder and heard the Red Alert. And then they saw Dr. Puri die, and had to postpone their date indefinitely.

FOUR

Six months later Leonard was CMO, and Christine was Head Nurse. The mission of the Enterprise had been a success so far, and several crew members received well-deserved promotions.

It had been Leonard's own idea to hold department parties on this occasion; he had argued this would be good for morale. The uncomfortable collar of the dress uniform he had to wear made him think that maybe the idea hadn't been that good, but when he picked up Christine, who had chosen to wear the long-skirted variant of the uniform, he was again sure it actually was. There were no patients in sickbay, so they could relax and have fun for a change.

When they arrived at their table in the mess hall, Leonard ordered a bottle of wine. They listened to Jim, who was fitting better into his role as a captain every day, giving a short speech. After that Leonard and Christine both knew they had to do the "nice boss" thing and mingle a bit. They started to make their rounds together, but when they came to the table where most of the female nurses and med techs sat, Leonard got the feeling they wanted to have some "girl talk" with Christine. He took the hint, promised her a dance for later, and went to sit with Jim and Spock. They talked for a while, and just when Leonard was about to go and ask Christine to dance, Spock said something that he couldn't agree with at all, and Jim's arguments weren't any better, so he had to set them straight first. He must have lost track of time over this, because when he looked over to Christine's table, it was empty. His two friends gave him puzzled looks when he just said: "Okay, you win!" and left.

Leonard assumed the nurses had just moved the party to their Common Room, and was right. But the party was already breaking up when he got there, and Christine had left. Still, it would have been rude to leave right away, so he accepted a drink. As soon as possible, he excused himself.

And then he stood at Christine's door. A little green light on the control panel told him it wasn't locked. Maybe she was waiting for him. Or she could be asleep. And then there was the very, very slight possibility that she wasn't alone. He never found out, for he didn't dare to enter. He stood there for what seemed a long time to him, and then he went away.

FIVE

When they reached Pacifica III, where the Enterprise was to deliver supplies for the colony, Christine surprised Leonard, who had planned to catch up on paperwork, by declaring she had put both of them on the list for shore leave. Leonard grumbled on principle, because he didn't want to encourage anybody to make decisions for him, but had to secretly admit that a relaxing day on the beach might be just what he needed.

The transporter room was crowded today. They had to wait in line, but everybody was patient and in a good mood, anticipating to walk on real ground. The beaming down proceeded swiftly, until there was only one group before Leonard's and Christine's. That was when he became aware of the transporter technicians gathering round a console, of exchanges in a low voice, and his internal sensors started to tingle. He was already moving when the Transporter Chief called for him, and then Crewman Grolk materialized on the platform and collapsed. He had been stung by an unknown insect and was in anaphylactic shock. Christine had already called for an antigrav stretcher.

It was touch-and-go for a while, but after the patient was stable, they could begin to identify the venom and to synthesize an antidote. And then, of course, they had to contact the colony doctors to ask why nobody had told them they had damn dangerous bugs flying around down there. It turned out this was news to the colonists, because this had been the first case the insects, a species of wasps, actually, had stung somebody. Well, maybe the wasps had a thing for Tellarites, but that was no excuse. The colonists were grateful for the warning, and caught and send up some specimen. So Christine could arrange to send a picture of the insect and a warning to the tricorders of the crew on leave, and fortunately no one else was stung. Finally the antidote was ready, and some hours later they could be sure that Grolk would fully recover and could be moved out of ICU.

So, Leonard and Christine could go off duty again after 36 hours. By then, neither of them did want anything but sleep.

...AND HOW THEY GOT TOGETHER AT LAST

Leonard considered himself to be a man of science, so he wasn't superstitious. But he began to suspect that some things were just not meant to be. So he and Christine worked together and trusted each other; he grudgingly allowed her to lecture him about proper nutrition and rest (okay, he knew she was mostly right, but she didn't need to be THAT protective); they argued a lot, but in a good way, and sometimes they even teased each other. But that was it.

Until this one evening, when Leonard was already off shift and Christine stopped by his quarters with a draft of the supplies order they wanted to send Starfleet Medical the next morning. There was hardly anything he found to add or change, for Christine had been as thoroughly and efficient as ever. Somehow Leonard wanted her to stay a little bit longer, so he asked if she wanted a drink. She hesitated for a moment, then said "yes". They sat and talked, but there were slightly awkward pauses in their conversation, where they just looked at each other. The moment when Leonard cleared his throat, because he wanted to say "Good night", Christine put her glass on the table with a light "thunk". And then she leaned over and kissed him. He was so surprised that it took him a second or two to react, but then he kissed her back, and then they started kissing for real, and everything went very quickly from then on. Soon their uniform parts were scattered on the floor, and they were in his bed, feeling so good that Leonard couldn't understand why they had waited so long to do this…

…and that was when the door swooshed open. Leonard roared "Out!"; Jim (who else?) muttered "Sorry, sorry, sorry…" and retreated hastily; Leonard said "Computer: lock door!" and was afraid everything was ruined yet again.

But to his immense relief, Christine just giggled and said: "You know, that reminds me of our first date."

So Leonard grinned and said: "Well, we never actually had a first date…"

"Who cares?" whispered Christine and pulled him close again. And he had to admit that she was absolutely right.


End file.
